Cold-cathode lighting has been used as an architectural lighting tool with unusual flexibility. Lamps are generally elongated glass tubes filled with a luminescent gas which when energized emits a light of a color depending upon the phosphorescent coating of the tube. Series of tubes are typically arrayed in various geometries to conform with architectural arches to provide unusual lighting and decorative effects owing to the long continuous lines of light. Heretofore, cold-cathode lighting has been available primarily for indoor usage, for example, in coffers, on ceilings, along columns and beams, and on walls.
Architectural cold-cathode lighting systems employ a series of lamps deployed end-to-end and interconnected in series to provide a continuous line of light in the geometric pattern in which the tubes have been arrayed. The individual lamps are supported on opposite ends in sockets of appropriate ceramic lampholders having electrodes through which the energizing circuit for the lamps is established. The entire array is itself powered through a remote transformer.
It is to improvements in cold-cathode lighting systems, specifically adapting them for all-weather usage, to which the present invention is directed.